Advocate: Residents fight tickets for parking on own driveways

Residents on Crosby near downtown Houston are routinely being ticketed for parking on the sidewalk, although a neighborhood official found that the "sidewalks" in question are legally on private property.

Photo: Jamaal Ellis

Driveway tickets have been an issue for Houston residents who continue to ask the Advocate why they get parking citations at home and how they can stop the sanctions.

In most cases, city parking enforcement officials or Houston Police Department officers are issuing these tickets to people who have bumper-to-bumper vehicles piled two-deep in a driveway. The arrangement is usually obstructing a sidewalk in the public right-of-way.

But not always.

The Advocate was contacted last month by a resident of a Fourth Ward townhouse development on the edge of downtown west of Interstate 45. The driveways, like the neighborhood, are compact and not always long enough for even one vehicle to fit between a garage door and what looks like a sidewalk.

When his dog "started going nuts in the middle of the night" in early September, Andrew Peng realized something was going on and looked outside.

"A cruiser was parked in the middle of the block and the officer was writing tickets to people parked in their driveways," he said.

Over the last few years, enforcement for blocked sidewalks has been requested by civic clubs and homeowners associations in some Houston neighborhoods - particularly on the southwest side - as well as in communities flanking Washington, Almeda and other busy nightlife thoroughfares.

Last year, the Advocate reported on the high number of citations received by residents of Green Valley Estates - a far southwest Houston community in Fort Bend County.

Dozens of tickets for sidewalk-blocking were issued from January through August, according to an analysis of city records. The community improvement association president said the group had asked for enforcement on people who parked in their front yards - not their driveways - but District K Councilman Larry Green said he had received complaints about driveway parking that blocked sidewalks.

Easement just 18 inches

But in the Fourth Ward, Peng's neighbor recently fought the $40 tickets by pointing out that not every strip of concrete near a home's driveway is a sidewalk.

Crosby Place Home­owners Association President Cole Mackey, who also happens to be a lawyer but was not acting as legal counsel, got eight citations dismissed because the walkways are outside of the city's utility easement - meaning the "sidewalk" is not in the public right-of-way. Two of the tickets belonged to him and another pair were issued to his wife. He argued that what looks like a sidewalk is actually a private walkway under Texas law.

"Our property line runs all the way to where the curb meets the street. There is an easement, but it's only 18 inches. They should be charged with knowledge of that and be responsible enough to look it up instead of blindly issuing tickets - not to mention they were sneaking around doing this at 1 o'clock in the morning. There are better things for them to do in the middle of the night," Mackey said. "I think that the police were simply mistaken in this situation, but it's put us in a precarious position."

Home values affected

The HOA president said he has been told by authorities that the ticketing will stop "for the time being," but doesn't think that's good enough.

"If the city is going to take the position that those types of tickets are legitimate, that amounts to a constitutional taking of our property and we are entitled to compensation," he said. "Without an order, a letter or direction from the appropriate city officials, this cloud is going to hang over the values of our property."